How to Win a Race
by katierosefun
Summary: Or the time Peter Parker accidentally agreed both Tony Stark and himself to work out with Steve Rogers in the early hours of the morning. Of course, Peter regrets it right away, especially when he finds out that Steve runs. A lot.


"Come on, boys! Up!"

Peter groaned at the slap of the pillow across his face. He shoved the pillow aside and cracked his eyes open just to hiss and roll over on his side at the sudden brightness of the daylight streaming in through the curtains. "Five more minutes," he moaned into the bed.

"Rogers, shut the damn curtains," Peter heard Tony mumble from the other bed.

The increased brightness behind Peter's eyelids and the louder groan coming from Tony only told Peter that Steve had, in fact, decided to open the curtains wider.

"It's not my fault that you two decided to stay up late," Steve said cheerfully.

"There was a _Star Wars _marathon on TV," Peter said, keeping his face buried into the bed. "And it's _vacation_."

"That's no excuse," Steve said, and with a loud clap, he added, "Be ready in ten. Bucky and Sam are already up." And with that, Steve left the room.

Peter lifted his head from the bed. "Do we have to go?" he asked.

Tony flopped an arm over his eyes. "No. Cap will have to drag my corpse out of bed before he gets us out there."

Peter nodded and promptly crashed his head back into the pillow.

Only, of course, exactly ten minutes later, Steve came back into the room. "Come on, you guys," Peter heard him sigh, and before Peter could react, he was being dragged off the bed. When Peter looked up, Tony was struggling against an (almost) amused looking Bucky Barnes, who was forcing Tony up.

Peter and Tony blinked owl-eyed at each other before turning to Steve and Bucky, who only tossed back clothes at them.

"Two minutes," Steve said, walking out of the room. "I mean it."

Peter glanced at the clock as he shoved on his running shorts. "It's not even eight yet," he complained. "No one should be allowed to run before eight in the morning." He turned to Tony. "Why'd we agree to this?"

"_I _didn't agree to this," Tony said, tugging on his shirt. "_You _did, which meant that _I _had to agree to it."

"Why'd you let me agree to this?"

"I didn't _let _you!" Tony shot back. "I turned around for literally _two _seconds!"

"Oh, right," Peter mumbled, bending down to tie his shoelaces. Then, after a moment, he said, "But that was before I found out about the _Star Wars _marathon."

"Kid," Tony said as the two started out the bedroom door, "just don't agree to work out with Steve. Or Nat, for that matter. Or, better yet…" He turned to Peter, raising his hands. "Just don't agree to work out with any of the people here."

"Wish you warned me before," Peter mumbled. The two of them walked into the main sitting room, where Steve, Bucky, Sam, and, to Peter's surprise, Natasha was waiting. Only unlike the men, Natasha wasn't dressed in any workout clothes. Rather, she only had a bathrobe wrapped around herself and was drinking from a mug of coffee.

"Morning, sleepyheads," she said, lifting the mug to her lips. "Ready to go through hell?"

"You're not running with us?" Tony asked.

Natasha snorted. "Didn't come back from the dead to die again," she said. "Pool day for me, boys."

"There's a pool?" Peter asked, whipping his head at Tony.

"Up on the roof," Natasha said before Tony could. She took another sip from her coffee. "Real nice. But…" She almost looked sympathetic at Peter. "I heard you two decided to go running by the Charles." She nodded at the view of the Charles River outside. There were already some people jogging or biking, and even more people rowing across the river.

"It'll be fun," Steve said, resting his hands on his hips. "Just follow my lead." And with that, he started out the door.

Peter exchanged another look with Tony before following after him.

"Have fun!" Natasha called from behind.

"She's just rubbing it in our faces now," Tony grumbled, and Peter could only grunt in agreement.

* * *

About four and a half miles into the run, Peter was regretting his choice to join Steve on the run more than ever. He had been able to keep a mostly consistent pace, but just as his chest was starting to feel just a little tighter, Steve still seemed completely at ease. Steve even turned his head back around every few minutes, as though to check if there were still people behind him. Bucky, for the most part, remained silently right behind Steve, running with the same ease and pace that Steve carried. Sam, a little ways behind Bucky, occasionally swore, but for all that, he was still much further ahead than Peter and Tony.

But even Tony, for all his complaints, still ran at a steady pace, which Peter figured only came from years of running with Pepper.

Peter, on the other hand, was wondering when the run would end.

"Everything okay back there?" Steve shouted from the front.

Peter only heaved something unintelligible which Steve apparently took as the signal to keep running.

"When's he gonna stop?" Peter gasped.

"Given his last run was almost thirteen miles, I don't know," Tony replied.

"_Thirteen miles?_" Peter wheezed.

"Try not to talk," Tony said, gesturing at his chest. "Will make the feeling worse."

Peter bobbed his head once in understanding, but even that small movement made him want to bend over and stop the pavement from spinning below his feet. He blinked the sweat from his eyes and instead focused his gaze on the river plodding along beside him. There were still college students rowing quickly across the river, and Peter couldn't help but shudder at how fast they were working across the waters.

"Come on, Pete, keep up," Tony said, forcing Peter's attention away from the boats.

"Trying," Peter replied, but he quickened his pace.

Eventually, Sam was running alongside Tony and Peter, while Bucky was only about a step behind Steve.

"How're you two holding up?" Sam asked, breathing heavily through his nose.

"I hate running," was all Peter could say as Tony said, "I can't wait for this to be over."

"You can tap out two miles from now," Sam said with a knowing nod at the two of them. Peter felt a rush of relief at that, but as he looked back ahead at Steve and Bucky, he again couldn't feel both slightly shocked and slightly envious at how the two were able to run as though it were the easiest thing in the world.

"I can't wait to go swimming," Peter only managed, which made both Sam and Tony laugh (or at least huff what passed as a laugh), and the three continued their silent, painful trek after Steve and Bucky.

Peter let his gaze wander yet again to the water. There were fewer rowers at this section of the river now, but there were also more trees and a few more small bridges. There were also more ducks and bird droppings, and at one point, Tony, Sam, and Peter all had to run around a whole flock of geese waddling around the grass.

Peter, waving his hand through the gnats that swarmed around the small mounds of goose poop, could again only wish that he was in the water. The sun had fully risen now, causing the sweat to drip from even the bend in Peter's legs. He turned again to Tony, whose entire shirt neckline had gone dark and wet with sweat. Sam didn't look much better, either.

Tony looked back at Peter and grimaced. "You ready to tap out?" he breathed.

"Almost," Peter replied, wiping away the sweat from his forehead. He narrowed his eyes at Steve and Bucky, whose backs had definitely started to darken from sweat, too. "How are they still _running_?" he asked, exasperated. He groaned, lifting his head up to the sky and then instantly regretting how the sun made him temporarily lose his sight. Peter stumbled to the side, trying to blink the green and black dots out of his vision, but he felt a hand grip his arm before Peter could fully tumble off course.

"Careful," Tony said, righting Peter back to the pavement. Through even the sweat dripping past his eyes, Peter could make out the way Tony's eyes hung onto him for a second longer than usual as they kept running down the path. "Are you sure you're feeling up for the next miles?"

"Yeah," Peter managed, trying to nod, but that slight jostle of his head only made things feel worse. He stopped nodding his head right away and snapped his eyes back to the front.

"If you can't keep going, then no one's gonna blame you," Tony said, still keeping in pace with Peter. His voice bounced alongside Peter, but still, it didn't sound as nearly as strained as Peter thought it would. "It's impressive you've gotten this far."

"No," Peter argued. Or, at least, attempted to argue. It hurt to talk. So Peter just shook his head once—making sure it would only be once. He heard Tony sigh deeply behind him, and Peter had the feeling the deep breath wasn't just because of the running.

After a pause, Tony said, "Or, you know, there's always other ways to speed up the run."

Peter only looked at Tony.

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "You agreed to working out with Cap. That doesn't necessarily mean running." Then, clearing his throat, Tony added, "Your pockets don't happen to have something, do they? You know, just in case?"

Slowly, a grin spread across Peter's face. His legs still pumping underneath him in time with Tony, Peter reached into his pockets and slowly withdrew the familiar web shooters. He slid them to his hands and cast a side glance at Tony, who only kept his eyes ahead. Still, Peter caught the barest twinkle of amusement in his mentor's eyes.

"See you in a bit, Mr. Stark," Peter breathed, and without a second warning, he shot out webbing towards the nearest tree.

Peter heard Sam's surprised shout as he rocketed overhead. He grinned to himself, letting webs fly from his palms left and right. He heard the yells and gasps of other joggers—just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swinging from the trees on a morning run, no problem—and Peter couldn't help but smile to himself as he glanced down at a woman pushing a stroller with a tiny baby girl. The baby gaped up at Peter, and he only barely had enough time to wave down at her before zipping off towards Bucky and Steve's backs.

Peter grinned down at Bucky and Steve, who still didn't seem to notice that a certain teenager was hovering right over them. Peter let them run in their own ignorance as he swung from branch to branch. Some birds cawed and honked after him, and the distant splash of oars against water slowed as students undoubtedly stopped to watch Peter swing through the trees.

Peter looked down again. Bucky and Steve were laughing together about something, probably perfectly at ease with the fact that everyone else was a long way behind them. Peter's grin widened. That wouldn't last for too long.

Peter could hardly contain his excitement as his foot just barely brushed over Bucky's head and then, feeling a rush of adrenaline up to his chest, Peter shouted down, "On your left!"

Steve looked behind his shoulder, confused, and then a moment later, Peter leapt down from the webbing. He tumbled on his feet on impact but quickly regaining his steps, Peter sped ahead. He heard Steve cry out some kind of protest, but Peter couldn't make it out over the sound of blood roaring in his ears as he sprinted away.

"Where'd he come from?" he heard Bucky shout.

"That wasn't fair, Queens!" Steve shouted, but as Peter heard Steve and Bucky's stepping gain on him, Peter only shot out another length of webbing and flew up to the nearest tree.

Swinging ahead, Peter only shouted over his shoulder, "You never said I had to run!"

* * *

When Steve and Bucky finally decided to stop running, Peter swung down from the tree to wait with them for Sam and Tony to finally catch up. And when they did, Steve turned to Tony and said, "You've been teaching the kid to cheat."

"Who, me?" Tony asked, leaning against the tree Peter had just swung down from. "Never." Still, the wink Tony shot Peter didn't help alleviate Steve's somewhat disgruntled mood. "I wouldn't ever try to influence anyone. You're just sore about someone beating you for the first time ever."

"He didn't—"

"I technically did," Peter interrupted, and when Steve looked at him, Peter added, "Mr. Rogers, sir."

"Nah, he's just grumpy that you came up with a better plan than him," Tony said, patting Peter on the back. He grinned at Steve. "What can I say, Cap? Kid's got a good head."

Steve only shook his head, but now he looked more amused than anything else. "Just wait until the pool," was all he said. "No way you can swing around there."

As they all headed back to the hotel, Peter whispered, "Is there anything for me to actually swing from?"

Pressing his lips together into the most subtle of smiles, Tony whispered back, "Nah. There's some columns that the webs will stick to."

Peter grinned at Steve's back. "Perfect."

* * *

**A/N: **_This was written for the Irondad 1000 Feelings challenge on tumblr, feeling #333: the satisfaction of running faster than all the rest. Highly recommend checking out the blog if you haven't already!_

_It's been a hot second since I've written anything even remotely light and fluffy, but I was craving a quick goofy fic, especially after watching Far From Home. (Which, by the way, I highly recommend everyone see. Lots of pain. And I am dying to talk to anyone about it.) _

_Reviews/constructive criticism are always greatly appreciated!_


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